SpaceSector has an interview with Lennart Sas and Arno van Wingerden the founders of Triumph Studios. The interview deal with the RPG/Strategy game Age of Wonders 3.

Quote:

SS: A lot of 4X and turn-based strategy games of all genres tend to reach a point in the mid to late game where gameplay becomes more about micromanagement and tedious mop up of your opponents than about having fun. What steps have you taken to keep the player engaged and interested in the later stages of a game?
LS & AW: Itís our goal to keep the games as exciting as possible in each phase. Each class includes powerful end-game skills resembling a nuclear option to make enemies bow down in submission. In a free-for-all game, enemy AIs can join forces and gang up against you in a last ditch attempt to thwart their impending annihilation. The game features high level exploration sites and monster dwellings reserved for late game uncovering.
Also donít forget Age of Wonders has always been a game heavy on combat. The map is fully malleable and the end game might show a lot the towns in ruin and the countryside corrupted by blight or high-level magic. Subsequently the final conflict might focus on a couple of remaining developed hot spots. But beware; alignment is now fully dynamic. Scorched earth tactics might provide short-term gain, but will most likely work against you over long term.SS: Out of all the improvements and elements youíve added to Age of Wonders 3, which aspect of your game do you feel stands out and is going to be the most exciting to players?
LS & AW: Age of Wonders 3 has so many systems, which all have seen improvement, from the added depth of the tactical battles, to more variety in location on the world maps, to new domain system. In the end itís all about how these systems work together. As itís such an overarching feature Iíd go pick the new leader classes which really are at the root of the new Age of Wonders experience, where the player is able to be a leader of a fantasy realm that is an extension of his own character and provides great variation in game play as RPG character classes do.

That first question SS asked is key. Spacedock made some efforts to avoid middlegame malaise in Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes (Unrest, outposts, limited city areas etc.), but they still haven't quite nailed it yet, I think. The problem is one of positive feedback. Couldn't bring myself to play Civ 6 more than once for this reason.

Voqar

June 11th, 2013 06:27

I think you mean Stardock. And Civ 6 will be great when it comes out in a few years but they're only up to 5. I consider 5 to be best in series and I don't see how anybody could judge such a behemoth of a game by just playing it once, but whatever floats your iceberg. Civ, or any strategy game, can drag in mid/late game depending on how you play and how victory is setup. The next Civ xpac (in july) *is* looking to address this issue some.

I need to give FE:LH a go since I got it for free from preordering the original disaster ages ago.

Anyways…

This game looks interesting but I could say that about 10+ different games that seem to be perpetually in development. Eventually some of these things have to be done and ready to play, starting with SRR here shortly! Lots were are kickstarted too (and orchestrated a bit less shadily than SRR perhaps) so it'll be interesting to see how they pan out.

SirJames

June 11th, 2013 08:40

With Fallen Enchantress some games I'd skip the mob mop up winning with master quest or spell of making if I started to get over it. Feels kinda cheap when you have 1 town and 40 points and beat the guy with the whole map and 1000 points. Either way, the end is the end whether you win or lose so what's it matter. :)

With AOW I've only played multiplayer games and it wasn't too hard to finish a guy off by capturing all his wizard towers since people didn't build many.

What's this 6 races rubbish, though? What happened to 12? I'm pissed off I have to buy 2 expansions to get all the races from the prequel when I won't touch the bulk of the content offered since I won't play the singleplayer campigns. :(